installed ubuntu on my mac

I came to the problem that I needed to test native linux/unix virtualisation recently. First, I tried to think of the new test box I have to procure, but then I got the idea that I'm not using my current resources to the full: my MacBook Pro i5 8GB RAM. Found this (see a copy in my Google Drive). It was really easy!

All you need is to do reEFInd bot manager and install Ubuntu afterwards. Worked like a charm! And it is very nice performance of Ubuntu on this metal :)

The only annoyance was that my computer stopped to do sleep normally (from OS X perspective). It needed hard reboot every time after a few hours of sleep. Fortunately, upgrade to Yosemite solved this, probably just a fresh reinstall of anything would have helped.

Enjoy!

shellshock on my systems - no real worries

To determine if your Linux or Unix system is vulnerable, from a command line, type something like this:

env x=’() { :;}; echo vulnerable’ bash -c “echo this is a test”

If the system is vulnerable, the output will be:

vulnerable
this is a test

An unaffected (or patched) system will output:

bash: warning: x: ignoring function definition attempt
bash: error importing function definition for `x’
this is a test

or it will say that bash is not present or something else, you figure it out :)

So what about my systems? Here's the list:

• pfSense firewall 2.1.4-RELEASE (amd64), built on Fri Jun 20 12:59:50 EDT 2014, FreeBSD 8.3-RELEASE-p16 : not vulnerable, bash is not there by default :) check /etc/shells if you have it installed
• FreeNAS home server FreeNAS-9.2.1.7-RELEASE-x64 (fdbe9a0), FreeBSD 9.2-RELEASE-p10 #0 r262572+4fb5adc: Wed Aug  6 17:07:16 PDT 2014 : bash present by defeult, system vulnerable, checked jails, bash not present, will wait for the fix in next version, there's good comment on this at the end of this discussion :)
• Mac Darwin Kernel Version 13.3.0: Tue Jun  3 21:27:35 PDT 2014; root:xnu-2422.110.17~1/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64 : vulnerable, (I think) I haven't played with enabling/opening things, so will be waiting on Apple :)
• Hackintosh Darwin Kernel Version 13.3.0: Tue Jun  3 21:27:35 PDT 2014; root:xnu-2422.110.17~1/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64 : vulnerable, (I know) I haven't played with enabling/opening things, so will be waiting on Apple
• XBMC based HTPC on Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS, Linux ___ 3.11.0-13-generic #20-Ubuntu SMP Wed Oct 23 07:38:26 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux : not vulnerable
• I haven't hacked into my TV and I won't :)

Good luck to you all!

cybersecurity day today for me #security #linux #truecrypt #opensource #keychain #apple #keychain2go

All of the following in one day (+night...)

Twitter told me that Critical Linux Flaw Threatens More Systems Than You Think today.

Updated my Linux-es tonight (Ubuntu server 13.10 and raspbian), noticed that simple update doesn't affect package in question :D Need to be persistent and upgrade package from source...

And left my XBMC box for the other day, it also runs on Ubuntu.

As mounting Apple's encrypted disk failed me last week plus it makes duplicate copies in my Dropbox, decided to look for alternatives. Moved to open software, namely TrueCrypt.

Interesting and convincing. Plus, now I can view it on my mobile iOS devices too :)

I used to store some passwords in some files... Finally it got me, too hard to manage and search. Need some password manager. For me as Apple user the obvious first choice was keychain plus Keychain2Go app to get it on iOS devices. Set up sync, nice! :) Now need to move passwords there gradually. The question remains, what about being dependent on Apple? Noticed 2 nice things about it: keychain is in Apple's opensource domain actually (!) and there are tools for export available. So, some day there will be integration. 

my favorite and most important tech fact of year 2013 : bug #1 solved

It took some time for me to level all my tech interests, preferences, readings, writings, happenings of the year 2013. But now I'm done: my favorite and most significant tech fact of the year is this: Mark Shuttleworth marked bug #1 as fixed!

If you didn't know, the bug #1 was "Microsoft has a majority market share".

Read it here https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1/comments/1834 or copy just for my recods:

----
Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl) wrote on 2013-05-30:
----

Personal computing today is a broader proposition than it was in 2004: phones, tablets, wearables and other devices are all part of the mix for our digital lives. From a competitive perspective, that broader market has healthy competition, with IOS and Android representing a meaningful share (see http://www.zdnet.com/windows-has-fallen-behind-apple-ios-and-google-android-7000008699/ and in particular http://cdn-static.zdnet.com/i/r/story/70/00/008699/meeker620-620x466-620x466.jpg?hash=ZQxmZmDjAz&upscale=1).

Android may not be my or your first choice of Linux, but it is without doubt an open source platform that offers both practical and economic benefits to users and industry. So we have both competition, and good representation for open source, in personal computing.

Even though we have only played a small part in that shift, I think it's important for us to recognize that the shift has taken place. So from Ubuntu's perspective, this bug is now closed.

There is a social element to this bug report as well, of course. It served for many as a sort of declaration of intent. But it's better for us to focus our intent on excellence in our own right, rather than our impact on someone else's product. In the (many) years since this bug was filed, we've figured out how to be amazing on the cloud, and I hope soon also how to be amazing for developers on their desktops, and perhaps even for everyday users across that full range of devices. I would rather we find a rallying call that celebrates those insights, and leadership.

It's worth noting that today, if you're into cloud computing, the Microsoft IAAS team are both technically excellent and very focused on having ALL OS's including Linux guests like Ubuntu run extremely well on Azure, making them a pleasure to work with. Perhaps the market shift has played a role in that. Circumstances have changed, institutions have adapted, so should we.

Along those lines, it's good to reflect on how much has changed since 2004, and how fast it's changed. For Ubuntu, our goal remains to deliver fantastic experiences: for developers, for people building out production infrastructure, and for end-users on a range of devices. We are doing all of that in an environment that changes completely every decade. So we have to be willing to make big changes ourselves - in our processes, our practices, our tools, and our relationships. Change this bug status is but a tiny example.